Abstract
We report a facile approach to preparing laponite (LAP) bioceramics via sintering LAP powder compacts for bone tissue engineering applications. The sintering behavior and mechanical properties of LAP compacts under different temperatures, heating rates, and soaking times were investigated. We show that LAP bioceramic with a smooth and porous surface can be formed at 800°C with a heating rate of 5°C/h for 6 h under air. The formed LAP bioceramic was systematically characterized via different methods. Our results reveal that the LAP bioceramic possesses an excellent surface hydrophilicity and serum absorption capacity, and good cytocompatibility and hemocompatibility as demonstrated by resazurin reduction assay of rat mesenchymal stem cells (rMSCs) and hemolytic assay of pig red blood cells, respectively. The potential bone tissue engineering applicability of LAP bioceramic was explored by studying the surface mineralization behavior via soaking in simulated body fluid (SBF), as well as the surface cellular response of rMSCs. Our results suggest that LAP bioceramic is able to induce hydroxyapatite deposition on its surface when soaked in SBF and rMSCs can proliferate well on the LAP bioceramic surface. Most strikingly, alkaline phosphatase activity together with alizarin red staining results reveal that the produced LAP bioceramic is able to induce osteoblast differentiation of rMSCs in growth medium without any inducing factors. Finally, in vivo animal implantation, acute systemic toxicity test and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-staining data demonstrate that the prepared LAP bioceramic displays an excellent biosafety and is able to heal the bone defect. Findings from this study suggest that the developed LAP bioceramic holds a great promise for treating bone defects in bone tissue engineering.
Highlights
Bone defects arising from trauma, tumor or bone-related diseases are causing more social issues due to the lack of ideal bone tissue substitutes [1]
Preparation and characterization of LAP bioceramic In our previous study, we have shown that LAP-doped poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)
Cytocompatibility assay of LAP bioceramic With the good hemocompatibility and excellent protein adsorption capacity, we explored the potential to use the LAP bioceramic as a scaffold for proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of rat mesenchymal stem cells (rMSCs), which is important in bone tissue engineering applications
Summary
Bone defects arising from trauma, tumor or bone-related diseases are causing more social issues due to the lack of ideal bone tissue substitutes [1]. One of the most important issues in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is to develop various artificial 3-dimensional scaffolds with appropriate physical and/or chemical properties that can closely mimic the natural extracellular matrix [6] These scaffolds should not bring any immune or other adverse responses after implantation, should be porous in nature with high surface area to volume ratio to facilitate cell attachment, proliferation, and differentiation so that new tissue can be formed, and should be biodegradable so that they do not require any additional surgical procedures to be removed out of body [7]
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